PM Modi to mark birthday by inaugurating world's second largest dam

The Sardar Sarovar dam will be inaugurated 56 years after its foundation stone was laid down by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate India's highest dam - the Sardar Sarovar dam - on Sunday, 56 years after its foundation stone was laid down by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

The inauguration coincides with the prime minister's birthday.

On June 16, the Narmada Control Authority had ordered the gates of the dam to be shut. The height of the dam was then increased to 138 metres raising its storage capacity to 4.73 million cubic metres from the earlier 1.27 million cubic metres. The dam is nearly 1.2-km-long and is 163 metres deep.

Also called the Narmada dam, it will be the second biggest dam in the world after the Grand Coulee Dam in the United States of America. The dam is also the biggest in terms of concrete used for construction.

The inauguration of the dam is expected to irrigate over 18 lakh hectares of land in Gujarat as the river water will flow into 9,000 villages through canal network.

The dam is a part of the Narmada Valley Project - a hydraulic engineering project under which multi-purpose dams are built on the Narmada river. Irrigation and hydroelectricity are the two essential areas under the project.

The Sardar Sarovar dam produces 4,141 crore units of electricity via its two power houses - river bed powerhouse and canal head powerhouse.

The power generated by the dam will be reportedly used by three states - Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Gujarat is expected to get 16 percent share, Madhya Pradesh 27 percent and the remaining 57 percent will go to Maharashtra.

Besides this, the dam will irrigate lands in Rajasthan's Barmer and Jolore regions and some parts of Maharashtra.

Also, 0.86 million cubic feet of water will be used to provide drinking water to 131 urban centres and 9,633 villages.